FICO - Your Credit Score
Since we live in an computer-driven society, it's not surprising that your ability to repay your mortgage comes down to just one number.
All the years you've been paying your various bills: your mortgage, car payments, and credit card bills can be analyzed, diced, spindled and mutilated into a single indicator of whether you're likely to meet your future obligations.
The three reporting agencies use slightly different formulas to build a credit score. The original FICO score was developed by Fair Isaac and Company.
While Experian still calls its score "FICO", TransUnion calls its score "Beacon" and Equifax uses "Empirica." While each of the models considers a range of data available in your credit report, the differences aren't huge; all of the agencies use the following to calculate a credit score:
- Your Credit History - Have you had credit for many years, or for a short time?
- Late Payments - Do you have any payments later than 30 days?
- Credit Card Balances - How many credit card accounts do you hold, and how much do you owe?
- Credit Inquiries - How many times have lenders pulled your credit for the purpose of lending you money?
Each of these factors is assigned a value and a weight. Each formula produces a single number which varies slightly from one agency to another. FICO scores range from 300 to 800. Higher is better. Typical home buyers probably find their scores between 620 and 800.
Not just for qualifying
Did you know? FICO scores affect more than your ability to get a loan. They also affect your interest rate. Higher scores indicate you are a better credit risk, and thus may qualify for a better mortgage rate.
Can I improve my credit score?
Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do to immediately improve your credit score. Some companies promise quick fixes, but they can't do anything different than what you can do — for free. You must, of course, appeal for the credit agency to remove any incorrect data on your credit report, which is the only way to quickly improve your credit score.
Getting your credit score
Before you can improve your credit score, you have to obtain your score and make certain that the credit reports from each agency are correct. Fair Isaac has created a web site (www.myFICO.com) that lets you do just that. It's inexpensive to quickly get your FICO from all three agencies, along with your credit report. Also available are helpful information and tools that help you analyze what actions might have the greatest impact on your FICO score.
You can get a free credit report every year from the three major credit reporting agencies at AnnualCreditReport.com. While this report does not include a free credit score, the cost to "upgrade" your report to include a credit score is very reasonable.
Now that you have all the facts, you'll be a more informed consumer and you'll be better positioned to get the right mortgage for you.
Want to know more about your credit score? Call us: (203) 729-6681.